MOAB dropped

Trump has yet again made headlines this week, this time for dropping a MOAB. What’s the MOAB? The MOAB is the “mother of all bombs.” It was dropped on an ISIS stronghold in Afghanistan last week. Touted as the largest non nuclear bomb ever, the MOAB had never been dropped in combat before and it’s kill count has climbed into the hundreds.

While there is a “father of all bombs” in existence (in Russia of course), it has never been used in combat. Trump, however, gave the order on April 13 to drop the MOAB, and dropped it was. The implications of the bomb being dropped was widespread, but what it reveals about Trump and the direction of his presidency is perhaps most telling.

Trump’s first 100 days were plagued by protests, roadblocks and political wheeling and dealing. In fact, much of what Trump set out to accomplish politically was shut down. Healthcare reform was shut down. The Muslim ban, or extreme vetting, was shut down. Add these in with a bunch of minor other “incompletes” on Trumps agenda and you have what amounts to a relatively unsuccessful political agenda.

Yet Trump promised much more in his campaign to be president, and on one thing in particular he has been delivering, big time. He promised to crack down on terrorist and other anti American organizations across the world and he has done just that. Starting with the tomahawk missile strikes against Syria for use of chemical weapons, then the MOAB, and now he is sending naval ships to North Korea, Trump has been consistently delivering on his promise to be a strong president militarily.

Trump seems determined to make a splash, and if he can’t do it at home, he’ll make it abroad. What a splash it made too, to drop the largest bomb ever dropped. Yet, what does this mean for the rest of his presidency? Take for example Trump’s interaction with Chinese President Xi. While economics was the focus of their meeting, North Korea was also brought up, and the way it was brought up reveals what Trump is thinking about for the future of American foreign involvement.

After their steak dinner, Trump told the Chinese president that he had launched the attack on Syria. His next order of business was to ask what the Chinese would do about North Korea and to ask whether they would take similar action. Trump warned Xi that if the Chinese didn’t do something, he would. For all intents and purposes, it seems Trump is following up on that promise as he sends a US navy fleet towards North Korea.